••  To  have  sought,  found  and  laid  open  a  form  of  truth,  be 
that  my  commendation,  even  though  none  understand." — 
Sajnt  Britno. 

'**  But  that  one  man  should  die  ignorant  who  had  capacity 
lor  knowledge,  this  I  call  a  tragedy.*'— Thomas  Cari,\xe. 


OOP   0000000.00060000000C60000000000 

PROBLEMS  +     IN  Nl^E 


OF  THE  .  . 


BRIEF 


HOUR  .  .  .  •^    STUDIES 


y~d~o  o  o  o  o  0  o  ^  c .0  o  .c.j:_y,_^p.  oX4-0^         ®  ^  - 


By  a:  K:  OWEN. 


jj. 


Bing  out  a  slowly  dying  cause, 

And  ancient  forms  of  party  strife ; 
Ring  in  the  nobler  modes  of  life, 

With  sweeter  manners,  purer  laws. 

Ring  in  the  valiant  man  and  ftee. 

The  larger  heart,  the  kindlier  hand; 
Ring  out  the  darkness  of  the  land. 

Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be. 

— Tmnyson. 


Library  of  Congress. 
1  Owen. Problems  of  the  ^^ur. 


:  0 


H9ti3 


Library  of  Congress. 
Oiron. Problems  of  the  hour. 


CONTENTS 


i 


P'refacc 

i 

|The  Equities  in  Property 


*The  Money  of  Account. 


The  World's  Money. . . 

What  is  a  Dollar? 

let  us  Coin  Labor,  not  Gold  and  Silver. 

A  Current  Money  o'  the  Realm 

Trices 


Pr^t^.tive  Tariff  and  Patent  Laws 

The  Best  Books,  Examples   in  Payments  and  Laws. 
Letter  to  President-Elect  McKlnley 


Paoe 
I 

5 
.  6 
.  8 
.    lO 

14 
.    i6 

24 

27 

•    33 
..    36 


ir  II  imi  iiMlwiiliiitfi 


Library  of  Congress. 
Owan. Problems  of  the  hour. 


PREFACE. 


During  the  thirty  years  since  the  assassination  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  the  accumulation  of  property  and  power  in  the  hands  of 
incorporated  associations  of  our  citizens  has  changed  the  entire 
character  of  our  government  and  of  our  people.  Private  prop- 
erties, city  properties,  state  properties,  national  properties, 
and  international  properties  are  all  muddled  and  huddled  to- 
gether, without  being  understood,  and  without  any  attempt,  so 
far  as  we  have  seen,  being  made  to  separate,  or  to  even  define, 
them ;  and  hence  those  properties  and  functions  which  return 
large  revenues  have  been  mostly  seized  by  special  acts,  in  city, 
state 'and  nation,  and  used  for  the  personal  greed  and  aggran- 
dizement oi  a  non-producing  class,  until  the  unincorporated 
citizen  has  been  reduced  to  abject  vassalage,  and  even  city, 
state  and  nation  have  been  put  under  tribute  to  the  lords  of 
privileged  legislation  and  are  now  robbed  of  their  resources  and 
defrauded  of  their  revenues  until  they,  with  their  unincorporated 
citizens,  are  actually  beholden  to  the  creatures  of  their  own  spe- 
cial enactments  for  the  right  to  exist ;  and  so  it  is  that  this 
United  States  is  no  longer  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people  and  for  the  people ;  but  it  is  a  government  of  the  cor- 
porations, by  the  corporations,  and  for  the  corporations. 

The  incorporated  companies,  syndicates  and  trusts,  to-day, 
control  or  own  everything  and  everybody  that  are  thought  to 
be  worth  owning  or  controlling  in  the  United  States,  and  here 
is  the  condition  that  confronts  us  :  '*■  From  the  probate  records 
of  some  of  our  Eastern  States  and  from  the  impartial  investiga- 
tions of  Mr.  George  K.  Holmes  of  the  United  States  Mortgage 
Census,  it  appears  that  a  little  group  of  under  five  thousand 
(5,000)  millionaires  own  one-fifth  (1-5)  of  the  wealth  of  the 
country,  and  that  one-eighth  (}i)  of  the  population,  including 
these  millionaires,  own  about  seven-eighths  (Ji)  of  its  wealth, 


2  Preface, 

while  over  half  of  the  population  possess  nothing  but  a  little 
cheap  household  furniture  and  perhaps  a  hundred  dollars 
besides. "  This  is  a  frightf ijl  picture  for  an  American  to  con- 
template, but  it  is  not  one-half  as  appalling  as  the  facts  of  the 
case  actually  are,  for  the  21,000,000  of  men  and  women  who 
actually  grow  and  fashion  everything  that  add  to  the  wealth  of 
this  nation,  are  so  thoroughly  set  upon  by  landlords,  transporta- 
tion-lords and  money-lords — are  so  down-trodden  by  rents,  taxes, 
interests,  fares,  freightage,  expressage  and  commissions,  that  90 
per  cent,  of  their  number  stand  within  48  hours  of  semi-starvation 
or  charity — there  are  4,000,000  of  men  and  women  tramping 
from  place  to  place,  or  standing  around  idle,  begging  for  work 
that  they  may  not  starve  ;  there  are  180,000  children  forced 
from  their  plays  and  schools  into  the  mines,  factories  and  shops, 
that  a  few  6ents  ma*y  be  made  to  assist  their  parents  to  keep 
them  in  food  and  shelter  ;  there  are  over  500,000  of  our  women 
forced  by  want  and  temptation  to  prostitution,  that  they  may 
live  ;  our  almshouses,  penitentiaries  and  asylums  reek  with 
their  over-crowded  inmates  ;  and  suicides,  murders,  arson  and 
crime  of  every  description  are  upon  every  hand  encountered. 
These  are  a  few  of  the  results  which  come  to  the  surface  of  the 
most  monstrous  system  of  centralization  and  confiscation  that 
the  world  has  ever  been  called  to  witness. 

This  is  the  condition — this  is  the  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  this 
people,  and  if  there  is  not  a  change — a  radical,  a  systematic 
and  an  early  change — then  the  handwriting  may  be  read 
upon  the  wall,  and  these  United  States  will  perish,  as  all 
nations  have  perished,  which  have  allowed  the  cunning,  un- 
principled, plotting,  non-producing  few  to  monopolize  the  legis- 
lation of  the  nation  so  as  to  seize  and  confiscate,  for  their  own 
selfish  greed,  the  products  of  those  who  produce — which  have 
permitted  property  to  become  more  sacred  than  the  labor  which 
created  the  property — which  have  appreciated  gold  and  have 
depreciated  the  people — which  have  created  classes  to  enslave 
the  masses — which  have  a'lowed  the  public  functions  and  the 
public  properties  of  the  people  in  city,  state,  nation  and  inter- 
nation  to  be  usurped  in  the  interest  of  a  few  of  the  citizens. 

There  is  no  theory  in  this — it  is  history;  and  history  em 


1 


Library  of  Congress* 

OifBn. Problems  of  the  hour. 


Preface. 

phasizcs  this  instruction  in  the  downfall  of  Egypt  when  2  per 
cent  of  its  people  owned  97  per  cent,  of  its  wealth  ;  in  Persia, 
when  I  per  cent,  of  its  inhabitants  owned  all  the  land ;  in 
Babylon,  when  2  per  cent,  of  its  citizens  controlled  all  that 
was  produced  ;  in  Greece  and  Rome  when  1,800  persons  owned 
the  then  known  world. 

The  little  pamphlet,  herewith  started  upon  its  mission  of  love 
and  duty,  simply  shows  the  way  to  an  equitable  separation  of 
properties,  so  that  what  is  thine  may  be  kept  distinct  and  apart 
from  what  is  mine,  and  so  that  both  thine  and  mine  may  be 
separated  from  that  of  the  city,  state,  nation  and  inter-nation. 
This  simple  and  exact  justice  to  individual,  city,  state  and  nation 
must  be  understood  and  practiced  by  our  people  before  the 
foundation  for  a  good  and  just  government  can  be  laid  ;  and 
until  this  is  done  "  equal  rights  to  all  and  special  privileges 
to  none  "  will  be  no  more  than  it  is  now — a  motto. 

The  key  to  "  what  is  thine  and  what  is  mine,"  is  first  a  home 
money  based  upon  home  labor  employed  at  home,  therefore  the 
subject  of  money — its  functions,  its  substitutes,  and  upon 
what  and  how  to  issue  money — is  treated  with  a  view  to  throw 
some  light  into  several  dark  places. 

In  the  second  place,  all  employments  must  eventually  be 
given  by  the  city,  the  state  and  the  nation,  for  tha  man,  or  the 
woman  who  is  dependent  upon  another  man  or  woman  for  his,  or 
for  her  employment,  cannot  be  other  than  a  wage  slave — a  low 
hireling  with  scarcely  a  soul  to  call  his,  or  her  own  ;  and  all  profit 
which  goes  for  handlage,  storage,  exchange,  etc.,  belongs  to 
the  city,  or  to  the  state,  or  to  the  nation,  and  should  never  be 
permitted  to  go  to  a  man,  or  to  a  woman,  or  to  a  private 
corporation,  or  to  a  private  copartnership,  for  if  it  does 
that  man,  woman,  corporation  or  copartnership  will  use  the 
advantages  given  to  subvert  the  liberties  and  to  seize  the  prop- 
erties of  those  who  are  employed  by  him,  or  by  her,  or  by  it. 

A.  K.  OWEN. 


Library  of  Congreas. 
Ow«n.  Problems  of  the  hour. 


'^  Library  of  Congress* 

i  Oiren.  Problems   of  the  hour. 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  HOUR 

IN    NINE    BRIEF   STUDIES 

BY 

ALBERT  KIMSEY  OWEN 


THE  EQUITIES  IN  PROPERTY 


STUDY    No.    1. 


This  is  the  way  we  apply  the  instruction  to  "  render  unto 
Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,"  etc.  We  teach  that  all  prop- 
erty shall  be  classed  into  five  great  divisions  ;  and  it  must  here 
be  emphasized  that  in  this  will  be  found  the  ethics  of  property 
— the  key  to  all  lessons  in  social  economics — the  open  sesame 
to  the  reformation  which  is  to  usher  in  the  new  civilization  : 

1.  Private  property — the  home  and  all  that  is  in  it;  the 
foot-lathe,  sewing  machine,  kit  of  tools,  carriage,  horse,  cow, 
bicycle,  yacht,  etc, — anything,  in  fact,  that  a  person  may  pro- 
duce, or  use,  or  do  for  himself  or  herself. 

2.  Municipal  property — the  land  and  atmosphere  which  are 
needed  for  the  uses  of  its  citizens ;  municipal  buildings, 
asylums,  libraries,  schools,  institutes,  etc. ;  the  streets,  bridges, 
public  areas,  tramways,  docks,  wharves,  ferries,  vessels,  water, 
expressage,  electric  powers,  telephones  and  lights,  gas,  com- 
missary, manufactures,  hotels,  restaurants,  markets,  theatres, 
halls,  meeting-houses ;  municipal  insurance  and  money,  and 
exchange,  bank  and  clearing-house,  etc. 

3.  The  inter-municipal,  or  state  property — the  lands  and 
atmosphere  between  municipalities;  state  buildings,  asylun^s, 
institutes,  ^choob,  parks,  reservations,  etc. ;  railroads,  canals, 

5 


Library  of  Congress^ 
Owen. Problems   of  the  hour* 


6  Problems  of  the  Hour. 

bridges,  ferries,  vessels,  telegraphs,  telephones,  mines,  rivers, 
creeks,  springs,  lakes,  seashores,  woods,  fish,  game,  birds, 
animals,  etc.,  which  are  entirely  within  the  state,  and  which  are 
not  incorporated  within  the  limits  of  any  city;  state  insurance 
and  money,  and  exchange,  bank,  and  clearing-house. 

4.  The  inter-state,  or  national  property — national  buildings, 
parks,  reservations,  fisheries,  asylums,  institutions,  etc.;  high- 
ways, bridges,  railroads,  canals,  vessels,  rivers,  ferries,  tele- 
v;  graphs,  telphones,  expressages,  mailage,  etc.,  which  are  inter- 
%  state  in  extent  and  character  ;  inter-state  or  national  insurance 
A  and  money,  exchange,  bank,  and  clearing-house,  etc. 
I.  5.  The  inter-national,  or  world  properties — the  ocean,  out- 

side of  the  three-league  limit,  islands,  arctic  and  antarctic 
regions,  seals,  mid-ocean  fish,  cables,  steamers ;  inter-national 
arbitration  and  insurance,  exchange,  bank  and  clearing- 
house, etc. 

We  think  that  the  separation  of  all  properties  into  these  five 
distinct  and  separate  and  inter-dependent  classes  will  give 
equity  in  property,  and  that  the  equity  in  property  will  bring 
about  the  ethics  of  property,  which  is  the  moral  side  of  the 
problem,  and  the  only  possible  foundation  for  a  perfect  society 
to  rest  upon. 


THE  MONEY  OF  ACCOUNT. 

Study  No.  2. 

The  greatest  of  all  money  is  the  money  of  account  The 
money  of  account  indicates  all  prices.  The  money  of  account  has 
nothing  to  do  with  coins,  or  with  gold  and  silver,  more  than 
with  iron,  copper,  tin,  wheat,  corn,  rice,  land,  etc.  With  the 
money  of  account  we  all — persons  of  all  nationalities— adjust  our 
swappings ;  i.  e.,  we  estimate  the  value  of  our  services  when  we 
wish  to  exchange  something  which  we  have  and  which  we  do 
not  need  for  something  which  we  do  not  have  and  which  we 
want. 

The  unit  of  the  money  of  account  of  the  United  States  is  the 


Problems  of  the  Hour.  7 

dollar ;  that  of  Mexico  is  the  peso  ;*  that  of  Spain  is  \\i^  peseta ; 
that  of  England  is  the  pound  sterling  ;  f  that  of  France  is  the 
franc  ;  t  that  of  Germany  is  the  mark ;  that  of  Japan  is  the 
yen.  When  the  respective  peoples  of  these  countries  talk  busi- 
ness they  each  use  their  respective  mo7iey  0/ account  to  fix  their 
prices;  but  the  settlements  are  made  in  a  million-and-one 
ways,  and  coins  are  used,  at  most,  only  for  counters  in  small 
retail  transactions.  Coins  are  of  no  more  use  in  themselves 
than  yardsticks  are  of  use  in  themselves.  What  we  all  struggle 
for  in  this  world  of  ours  is  for  the  services  and  for  the  finished 
service  products  of  each  other. 

Here  is  an  instance  of  how  the  niomy  of  account  is  used,  and 
where  coins  or  notes  are  not  thought  of.  Jones  is  a  Kansas 
farmer.  He  meets  Smith  and  says  :  "  Smith,  I  have  thought 
the  matter  over,  and  I  will  take  50  of  your  hogs.  What  is  your 
lowest  price  t "  *'  Well,  Jones,  I  guess  that  those  hogs  are 
worth  about  five-twenty-five  a  head  in  the  pen."  "  All  right, 
Smith,  I  will  take  them  at  that  price,  and  wilt  pay  you  in  that 
carriage  of  mine,  which  your  wife  wants  at  sixty-two-twenty-five, 
and  in  those  eight  acres  of  swamp  land  over  by  your  woods,  at 
twenty-five  dollars  an  acre."  **  It  is  a  bargain,  Jones,  you  make 
out  the  deed  of  transfer,  bring  over  the  carriage  and  take  the 
hogs." 

*  The  money  of  account  of  Mexico  in  fact  is  the  real,  medio,  quartillo 
and  tlaco,  in  spite  of  the  law  which  forbids  such  coins  to  be  used. 

In  England  the  guinea  is  used  in  accounts,  but  there  b  no  such  coin  to 
corresf)ond  with  it. 

The  Roman  sestertius  w^  like  our  "bit,''  a  money  of  account,  having  no 
coin  to  represent  its  va'ue. 

The  Turkish  piaster  is  a  money  of  acccount,  there  being  no  piaster  coin. 

The  rei  of  Brazil  is  a  money  of  account,  no  piece  of  that  denomination 
being  coined.     Ten  thousand  reis  equal  I5.25. 

The  scheme  for  Continental  coinage  proposed  by  Robert  Morris  provided 
the  following  scale  :  "  Ten  quarter?  make  one  penny,  ten  pence  make  one 
bit,  ten  bits  make  one  dollar,  and  ten  dollars  make  one  crown." 

t  A  pound  sterling  is  just  what  it  says-t-"  a  pound  sterling  of  "silver,"  yet 
did  any  one  ever  see  a  silver  coin  one  pound  in  weight  ? 

I  In  1803,  France  passed  a  law  which  reads  as  follows  :  '•  Five  grains  of 
silver,  nine-tenths  fine,  constitute  the  monetary  unit  which  retains  the  name 
of  franc." 


Library  of  Congress* 
Ow9n» Problems  of  the  hour. 


8  Probleviy  of  the  Hour, 

Now,  hore  was  a  business  agreed  upon,  as  millions  of  trans- 
actions are  made  every  day  by  all  classes  and  conditions  of 
people,  in  their  respective  money  of  account^  and  a  settlement, 
just  and  agreeable  to  both  parties  concerned,  was  effected,  and 
no  coin,  bills,  notes,  or  any  other  promises  to  pay  were  thought 
of  in  the  transaction. 

And  let  nie  here  emphasize  that  money,  whether  it  is  gold 
coin,  bank  notes  or  treasury  paper  money,  is  at  best  only  a 
promise  to  pay,  for  service  and  finished  labor  products  are  paid 
for  only  with  service  and  finished  labor  products.  Therefore  it 
is  the  money  of  account  that  our  legislators  should  study  and  not 
the  prices  of  metals. 

The  gentlemen  at  Washington  worse  than  waste  their  time 
and  confuse  themselves  and  confound  those  who  undertake  to 
follow  them  when  they  try  to  do  the  i6  to  i  puzzle  by  juggling 
with  25,8  grains  of  gold  nine-tenths  fine  and  412.5  grains  of 
silver  nine-tenths  fine,  for  it  is  probable  that  99  per  cent,  of  our 
public  men,  editors  and  speakers,  who  monkey  with  the  money 
problem  in  the  16  to  i  ratio,  never  have  had  the  opportunity  to 
study  money,  its  functions  and  its  substitutes,  free  from  the 
influences  of  bankers,  whose  business  in  life  depends  upon 
keeping  the  masses  ignorant  of  the  secrets  of  their-craft.  This 
secret  is  to  attack  and  to  destroy  anything  and  everything  which 
in  any  way  issues  to  interfere  with  their  monopoly  of  the  current 
credits  of  the  people. 


THE  WORLD'S  MONEY. 

Study  No  3. 

It  is  asked,  "  What  is  the  world's  money }  "  Strictly  speak- 
ing there  is  no  such  thing.  There  is  no  common  money  of 
account,  or  any  international  coin  or  note,  used  between  nations. 
Letters  of  credit  and  bills  ot  exchange  are  used  by  travelers  and 
by  merchants  respectively,  in  traveling  and  buying  in  foreign 
countries.  International  trade  is  the  swapping  of  commodities, 
and  the  balance  is  paid,  not  in  money,  but  in  one  or  more  com- 
modities agreed  upon  by  the  traders.  Between  England  and  the 
United  States  the  balance  is  paid  in  gold  when  not  otherwise 


•|  Library  of  Congress. 

i   Owen. Problems  of  the  hour. 


Proh/tms  of  the  Hour. 

specified  in  the  contr;ict~not  in  gold  coin,  but  in  gold  at  its 
bullion  value,  and  that  value  is  fixed  by  the  government  of 
Great  Britain,  the  United  States,  France  and  Germany. 

When  a  person  goes  from  the  United  States  to  Europe,  he 
does  Hot  take  gold  coin  or  gold  bullion  ;  he  takes  a  letter  of 
credit  from  one  banker  to  another,  for  $500  or  $1,000,  as  the 
case  may  bo,  and  when  he  reaches  England  he  presents  his  letter 
of  credit  and  is  given  credit  to  that  amount,  reckoned  in  tlie 
money  of  account  of  England.  The  English  banker  does  not 
ask  or  care  how  the  traveler  established  his  credit  in  America. 
It  is  not  of  any  importance  whether  the  credit  was  obtained  by 
the  deposit  of  gold  dust, "guano,  copper,  tin,  land,  mortgages, 
railway  stocks  or  other  collaterals.  The  fact  is  shown  by  the 
letter  of  credit  that  the  holder  has  established  in  America,  credit 
to  that  amount,  and  therefore  he  is  credited  in  England,  France, 
Germany  or  elsewhere,  to  tliat  amount.  Hence,  credit  is  the 
world's  n.oney;  is  the  ways  and  means  by  which  foreigners 
pay  their  bills  while  travel inL 

F'orcign  trade  is  simply  swapping  conimodilies*  — never  ex- 
changing coins  as  coins.  Gold  is  sent  to  and  fro,  between 
the  United  States  and  Europe,  at  its  bullion  value  only;  the 
United  States  and  Europe  pay  balances  in  Asia,  in  Mexico  and 
in  South  and  Central  America  with  silver ;    but  as  elsewhere 


«  «• 


The  truth  U,"  said,  Sir  William  Vernon  llarcourt,  in  the  British 
Cabinet  meeting  of  March  17,1896,  **  we  art  paid  not  in  golds  but  in  goods. 
It  is  out  of  this  merchandise  that  our  people  make  their  living,  and  now  it 
is  expected  of  us  that  we  shall  go  around  the  world  begging  that  we  shall 
receive  less  merchandise  for  our  gold." 

)  "  The  United  States  i;.  the  greater.t  producer  of  silver  in  the  world  ...d 
should  fix  its  price.  In  1893  the  United  States  produced  $77,57 <;700  of 
•ilver,  (Ireat  r.ritain  but  $327,700  i  an^  yet  the  United  States  allows  England 
to  fix  the  price  on  silver;  and  this,  too,  when  she  has  to  have  $50,000,000 
worth  of  silver  or  lose  her  prestige  in  the  markets  of  the  Orient.  Is  there  a 
man  in  Europe,  or  America,  who  would  permit  a  forcfd  buytrXo  fix  the  price 
on  a  commodi'ty  of  which  he  produced  enough  to  control  the  market  .> 
The  Americans  produced  in  1893,  $160,317,400  of  silver;  all  Europe  but 
I19, 155,  too  and  yet  the  Americans  permit  Europe  to  dictate  the  price  for 
which  it  Is  to  be  sold,  when  Europe  haa  to  have  $32,000,000  to  supply  her 
coinage  alone.  Could  anything  reflect  more  than  this  against  the  business 
capacity  of  the  United  States. 

Library  of  Congress. 
Owen. Problem!  of  the  hour. 


Library  of  Congress* 
Owen.  Problems  of  the  hoiir* 

lo  problems  of  the  Hour. 

it  is  by  the  offsetting  of  commodities  between  these  countri 
which  settle  all  of  their  accounts  and  coins  as  coins  play  no  pa 
In  the  transactions. 

Let  us  repeat  we  do  not  pay  our  foreign  debts  in  gold  ;  \^ 
pay  them  in  products  of  our  fields  and  mills.  For  the  last 
twenty-three  years  the  balance  of  trade  has  been  in  our  favor 
every  year  excepting  five.t 

England  is  our  principal  creditor.  In  the  year  1894  we 
exported  $422,000,000  worth  of  merchandise,  and  imported 
from  her  only  $108,000,000  worth,  leaving  a  balance  in  our 
favor  of  over  $300,000,000.  This  immense  balance  is  what  we 
pay  our  debts  with,  and  not  with  gold  as  some  "gold-bugs" 
would  have  us  believe. 


*' What  constitutes  the  wealth  of  the  nation?  Our  lands,  buildings, 
machiner)',  tools,  stock  of  goods  and  the  quantity  of  people  ready  to  work. 
Money  is  nothing  but  an  incident.  For  instance,  about  $20,000,000,000 
worth  of  goods  travel  to  and  fro  between  nations  in  the  course  of  the  year 
Do  you  suppose  that  $20,000,000,000  also  travels  to  and  fro  every  year  to 
pay  for  those  goods?  Of  course  not.  About  $10,000,000,000  of  these 
goods  pays  for  the  other  $10,000,000,000.  Not  much  over  $500,000,0^^0 
gold  and  silver  bullion,  at  the  merchandise  price,  travels  to  and  fro  between 
natiorts  in  the  course  of  the  year.  There  is  no  such  a  thing  as  money  in 
international  commerce.     It  is  not  needed.*' 


WHAT  IS  A  DOLLAR? 

Sn^DV    No.   4. 

Probably  not  one  in^  a  thousand  average  men  can  answer  the 
simple  question  :  **  What  is  a  dollar  t "  The  boy  when  asked, 
'*  What  is  water?  "  looked  amazed,  was  inclined  to  be  offended 
at  being  questioned  upon  such  a  simple  subject ;  but  bold  in 
his  ignorance,  answered,  "Why  water  is  water."  And  likewise 
those  legislators  of  ours  at  Washington  use  such  gibberish  in 
talking  of  money  as  **  unit  of  value,'*  "  honest  money,"  "  standard 
of  value,"  "eighty-cent  dollar,"  etc.,  when  the  fact  is  that  there 
never  was  or  can  be  eitjier  a  "  unit  "  or  "  standard  of  value,"  any 
more  than  there  carfbe  a^ifliif  or  standard  of  temperature.     A 


',   Llbrfa.ry  of  Congress* 
Owen. Problems  of  the  hour* 

P'ohlems  of  the  Hour,  \\ 

thermometer  may  indicate  high  or  low  temperature,  but  it  could 
hardly  be  called  a  "  unit  or  a  standard  of  heat,"  nor  was  there 
ever  a  dollar  that  was  not  worth  one  hundred  cents,  any  more 
than  there  could  have  existed  a  gallon  containing  less  tha» 
four  quarts;  and,  so  far  as  our  acquaintance  goes  with  the 
various  currencies  of  the  world,  there  has  never  been  an 
**  honest "  money,  except  it  be  that  which  was  issued  by  Hon. 
de  Lisle  Brock,  the  governor  of  Guernsey,  in  payment  for  the 
labor  to  build  a  market  house  in  the  town  of  St.  Peters. 

There  can  be  a  "standard  for  payments'*  and  a  "unit  of 
payment,"  but  there  cannot  be  a  ** standard"  or  a  "unit  "  of 
value,  my  more  than  there  can  be  a  bushel  measure  without 
bottom  and  sides.  The  "  greenback  '*  dollar  was  never  worth 
less  than  loo  cents.  The  "greenback  "  dollar  was  the  patriotic 
dollar* — was  the  standard  dollar  which  did  current  duty  during 
our  civil  war.  The  gold  dollar  f  during  the  war,  was  not  a 
"dollar"  because  it  was  not  current — it  was  a  "commodity" 
and  was  sold  like  so  much  wheat  and  cotton,  by  brokers,  to  our 
importers — to  the  highest  bidder — because  these  merchants  had 
to  have  the  gold  coin  to  pay  their  duties  at  the  custom-house. 

*  Let  a  war  cloud  the  size  of  a  man's  hand  appear  above  the  horizon 
of  any  nation,  and  their  gold  and  silver  hides  away  as  quickly  as  rats 
before  a  terrier. 

t  Gold  as  a  coin  is  worse  than  useless.  No  people  in  a  great  emer- 
gency ever  found  a  faithful  all}-  in  gold.  It  is  the  most  cowardly  and 
treacherous  of  all  metals.  It  makes  no  treaty  it  does  not  break.  It 
haa  no  friend  it  does  not  sooner  or  later  betray.  Armies  and  navies 
are  not  maintained  by  gold.  In  times  of  panic  and  calamity,  ship- 
wreck and  disaster,  it  l^ecomes an  enemy  more  potent  than  the  foe  in 
the  field  ;  but  when  the  battle  is  won  and  peace  has  been  secure<l, 
"gold  reappears  and  claims  the  fruit  of  victory.'*  In  our  own  civil 
war,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  gold  of  New  York  and  London  did  not  work 
gjreater  injury  than  the  powder  and  lead  and  iron  of  the  rebels.  It 
was  the  most  in\4ncible  enemy  of  the  public  credit.  Gold  paid  no 
soldier  or  sailor.  It  refused  the  rational  obligations.  It  was  worth 
most  when  oiu"  fortunes  were  lowest.  Every  defeat  gave  it  increase<l 
value.  It  was  in  open  alliance  with  our  enemies  th^"  world  o\'er,  and 
all  its  energies  were  worked  for  our  destruction.  But  as  usual,  when 
danger  had  been  averted  and  victory  secure<l,  gold  swa^^gered  to  the 
front  and  asserterl  its  supremacy. — Ex-Senator  John  J.  Ingalls. 


]   Library  of  Congreaa.       ■f'"' 
f  Ow«n. Problems  of  the  hour,  f 

12  Ptohltws  of  thr  /fjur. 

In  Mexico  during  the  Viceroys,  the  early  Mexicans  had  the 
sanie  experience  with  "  chickens."  The  natives  had  to  pay 
"  two  reals  and  a  chicken  "  for  taxes,  and  if  you  will  read  Mex- 
ican history,  you  will  see  how  those  poor  Indians,  who  did  not 
know  how  to  raise  "  chickens,"  had  to  bid  against  each  other  to 
get  the  necessary  "chicken"  from  the  tax  .gatherers,  who 
cornered  and  sold  the  chickens.  That  chicken  legal  tender 
history  is  full  of  misery  and  instruction.  Read  it,  and  you  will 
have  a  better  idea  ot  how  our  "  gold  dollar  "  was  sold  as  high 
as  $2.85.  It  is  quite  evident  that  the  "greenback  **  could  never 
have  been  at  a  discount  of  $1.85.  for,  if  it  was,  will  you  please 
calculate  what  a  dinner  cost  in  the  United  States  during  the 
middle  sixties,  when  a  person  tendered  a  "greenback'^  dollar 
for  a  good  dinner  and  received  fifty  cents  in  change,  at  the  time 
that  the  said  dollar,  according  to  the  rule  of  discount,  was  worth 
$1.85  less  than  nothing?  It  will  not  do  to  speak  about  gold 
cents  and  coins.  There  never  was  a  gold  cent.  The  United  . 
States  cents  have  all  been  copper.  "The  demand  notes,"  or 
the  first  greenbacks,  were  receivable  for  customs  dues,  and  they 
always  kept  at  li  e  same  premium  as  gold  coin  because  they  had 
equal  uses ;  and  to-day  we  see  that  the  United  States  treasury 
note,  the  "  Bland  dollar'*  and  the  gold  dollar  are  all  equal  in 
payments,  because  they  are  equal  before  the  law  in  acceptability, 
and  because  there  are  just  as  many  finished  products  behind 
one  as  behind  the  other.  If  the  people  would  like  to  see  how 
much  preciousness,  **  intrinsic  value  "  and  "  money-of-the-world 
value"  there  is  in  ?  "gold  dollar,"  all  they  have  to  do  is  to 
coin  a  "  copper  dollar  "  and  have  Congress  to  make  it  alone 
receivable  for  all  public  dues  to  the  United  States ;  and  then 
watch  and  see  how  our  importers  and  taxpayers  would  scramble 
for  the  "  copper  dollar  "  and  pay  two  and  three  gold  dollars  for 
one  "  copper  dollar,"  if  the  "  copper  dollars  "  were  few  and 
could  be  cornered  by  a  clique  of  speculators. 

This  goes  to  show  that  law  ♦  says  what  shall  be  moneys  but 
that  it  is  the  use  of  money  which  gives  money  its  value. 

♦"All  the  money  in  the  world  is  the  result  of  a  positive  law,  and 
there  will  not  be  and  never  has  been  any  such  thing  as  natural  money. " 
— Senator  Henry  M.  Teller. 


■4- 
■if 


Probitms  of  the  Hour.  13 

We  are  opposed  to  making  a  dollar  in  itself  valuable  for  the 
same  reason  that  it  would,  doubtless,  be  thought  foolish  for  a 
merchant  to  be  compelled  to  measure  dollar  silk  with  a  yard- 
stick worth  just  $1  in  gold  ;  and  10  cent  calico  with  a  yardstick 
worth  just  10  cents  in  silver ;  and  yet  this  would  be  quite  as 
sensible  as  having  a  dollar's  worth  of  gold  in  our  dollar,  and  10 
cents  worth  of  silver  in  our  10  cent  pieces  to  express  prices. 
A  dollar  and  a  ten  cent  price  are  simply  counters  to  show  the 
extent  of  the  service  the  holder  has  given  to  society,  and  the 
extent  to  which  society  is  indebted  to  the  holder  in  return.  II 
it  is  right  to  have  "  a  dollar  "  in  itself  worth  one  dollar,  then,  to 
be  just,  a  mortgage  on  land  should  be  engraved  on  gold,  or 
silver  plate,  equal  in  value  to  the  land  mortgaged. 

The  law  says  what  shall  be  money,  but  it  is  the  finished  labor 
products  which  are  back  of  the  money  and  which  stand  ready 
to  redeem  the  money  that  gives  money  its  value.  If  there  is 
not  labor  to  redeem  the.money,  money  is  of  no  value ;  no  matter  if 
the  gold  dollar  should  have  a  pound  of  gold  in  it  and  "  ♦he  silver 
dollar  should  be  as  large  as  a  cart-wheel."  The  Mexican  Adobe 
dollar  contains  417.25  grains  of  silver,  nine-tenths  fine,  but  as 
Mexico  is  deficient  in  diversified  home  industries  her  dollar  is 
made  the  plaything  of  the  exchange  scalpers ;  and  just  at  this 
time  a  *'  Bland  dollar,"  which  contains  only  412.50  grains  of 
silver,  nine-tenths  fine,  would  almost  buy  two  of  Mexico's 
heavier  and  richer-in-itself-dollars ;  %  and  the  reason  is  that  '*  the 
Bland  dollar  "  has  all  of  the  wonderful  varieties  of  assorted  and 
useful  finished  articles  in  the  United  States  ready  to  redeem  it. 
This  one  fact  should  be  sufficient  to  show  the  farce  of  the  claim 
made  by  the  gold-bugs  that  *'  ft  is  the  inherent  or  intrinsic  value 
of  coins  which  gives  them  their  value." 

Again,  in  one  hundred  five-cent  nickel  pieces  there  are  only 
seventy-five  cents  worth  of  nickel,  and  yet  these  one  hundred 
five-cent  nickel  pieces  will  buy  just  as  much  as  a  five-dollar 
gold  piece  anywhere  in  the  United  States,  and  not  one  person 


\  A  peraon  can  go  into  one  of  the  restaurants  in  Mexico  City,  get  a 
50  cent  dinner,  hand  a  "  Bland  dollar"  in  payment  and  receive  I1.45 
In  change  in  Mexican  silver. 

Library  of  Congraas* 
0w«n»Probl6MS  of  the  hour* 


1 4  Problc m s  of  the  Hour. 


in  ten  million  who  use  nickel,  gold  and  silver  coin,  ever  know, 
or  ever  care,  as  to  what  thek  respective  intrinsic  values  are. 
No  one  wants  the  coins  for  themselves  :  hut  every  person  does 
want  the  articles  for  which  the  cuius  can  be  redeemed. 


LET  US  COIN  LABOR,  NOT  GOLD  AND  SILVER. 

Study  No.  5. 

"  Labor  is  superior  to  capital^  and  desertes  much  the  higfur  con- 
stdi'Kiitionr — Abraham  Lincohi. 

*'  Without  labor  there  would  be  no  government  and  no  leading 
class  and  nothing  to  preserved — .V.  S.  Grant. 

•*  All  history  shows  that  the  welfare  of  the  working  classes  does 
not  depend  upon  the  price  of  bread  but  upon  the  demand  for  their 
labor:''— Dr.  Aendt. 

We  believe  that  each  municipality  should  move  at  once  to 
employ  its  citizens — should  establish  an  employment  bureau 
and  set  the  idle  people  to  work  upon  fixed  plans,  to  purify  neg- 
lected places,  to  improve  public  conveniences  and  to  extend  its 
environments.  Every  city  should  have  its  own  truck  gardens, 
farms  and  factories,  etc.,  if  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  employ 
every  class  and  condition  of  its  own  citizens  who  are  not  other- 
wise occupied.  The  one  great  lesson  which  our  national  legis- 
lators and  our  city  magistrates  have  yet  to  learn  is,  that  it  is  not 
gold  and  silver,  but  it  is  labor  that  constitutes  the  most  precious 
and,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  perishable  commodity  in  a  city 
and  in  a  nation.  Labor  is  the  jewel  pendent  of  every  com- 
munity. It  is  labor  alone  upon  which  every  city  and  nation 
depend ;  and  just  in  the  proportion  and  with  the  intelligence 
that  labor  is  employed,  fostered  and  diversified,  do  nations  and 
cities  advance  to  power  and  to  influence ;  and  it  is  diversified 
home  industries  alone  that  give  to  money  its  value.  Therefore 
to  permit  labor  to  be  lost,  for  want  of  direction  and  for  want  of 
a  place  to  deposit,  is  tho  greatest  possible  waste  of  wealth  that 
rulers  can  be  guilty  of.  The  time  is  nigh  when  to  neglect  to 
encourage  and  to  husb«'»nd  the  work  of  the  citizens,  a  mayor  will 


i  Library  of  Congress. 


♦•>»«»     >»AI11*- 


FrobUms  of  the  Hour.  15 

be  thought  to  have  committed  a  greater  wrong  against  the  city 
and  to  have  betrayed  his  trusteeship  more  than  if  he  had 
robbed  the  city's  treasury.  Jhe  law  or  laws  which  will  be  made 
to  employ,  utilize  and  protect  labor,  will  be  the  law  or  laws  which 
will  solve,  the  soonest  and  the  best,  the  money,  the  tariff,  and 
other  problems  which  now  agitate  governments  to  their  downfall. 
Why  should  not  every  city  *  have  an  employment  bureau  or  a 
iabor  depository ;  or,  as  it  were,  a  municipal  pawnshop,  where 
any  person  who  has  a  day's  work  to  give,  can  go  and  receive 

^  *  There  is  one  solution  of  the  question  of  the  unemployed  and  ouly 
one.  '  It  is  unployment  by  the  State  or  municipality  in  such  a  way 
that  each  man  at  his  own  trade  or  calling  may  prcxluce  that  which  will 
furnish  him  with  a  maintenance.  Ohio  has  already  an  institution  at 
Columbus— the  penitentiary — which  is  like  a  busy  manufacturing  city. 
The  State  f  urnislies  the  buildings  and  tlie  ground  rent  free,  and  largely 
the  machinery.  The  punluct  of  tho  labor  of  the  convicts  provides 
partly  or  wholly  for  their  living.  The  state  can  just  as  readily  build 
tactorie.:  outside  the  prison  walls  and  give  its  honest  citizens  a  chance 
to  earn  a  living.  Why  woul<i  Ohio  make  special  |)ets  of  its  convicted 
criminals  atid  compel  the  honest  JMtizons  to  submit  to  hunger  or  beg  the 
privilege  01  honest  work  ?  " 

**  Massachusetts  has  established  a  tramp  farm,  consisting  of  2,000 
acres  of  cheap  land,  which  is  lx)th  boggy  and  rocky,  but  improvable 
and  capable  of  l)eing  made  profitable  for  agricultural  puqwses.  To 
this  fanii  every  tramp  legally  convicted  of  vagrancy  will  l>e  sent  for 
two  years.  He  will  l^e  employe<l  in  buildinjjj  roads  and  houses  on  the 
farm  ;  in  digging  drains,  in  clearing,  plowing,  sowing,  reaping,  and 
all  the  labor  of  a  farm  that  has  to  be  created  from  a  wilderness." 

*•  The  mayor  of  the  second  arondissraent  of  Paris  has  undertaken  an 
interesting  experiment.  P*or  some  time  he  has  had  a  free  employment 
registry,  which  is  sai<l  to  have  proved  of  great  |mblic  utility.  What 
he  purposes  to  do  now  is  to  publish  lists  of  persons  seeking  situations 
ana  employers  seeking  assistants.  These  lists  are  to  l)e  exhibited  in 
suitable  frames  in  at  least  three  frequented  public  places.  No  charges 
will  be  made." 


•'  The  city  government  of  Stuttgart.  Germany,  has  establishe<i  a 
bureau  to  register  applicants  for  work  without  expense  to  workmen. 
It  is  estimated  that  the  scheme  will  cost  the  city  not  over  |i ,  250  a  year. '  • 


*•  In  1895,  Mississippi  bought  three  tracts  of  land  and  put  its  250 
convicts  to  work  under  sta^e  supervision.  The  result  was  3,200  bales 
of  cotton  of  500  pounds  each  ;  50,000  bushels  of  com  ;  1. 100  tons  of 
hay  •  45,000  pounds  of  pork  :  55  barrels  of  molasses  ;  2,200  bushels  of 
pears,  all  of  which  sold  for  $165,000.  The  cost  of  the  la nd  and  expenses 
of  the  year  for  farming  utensils,  live  stock,  etc.,  amounted  to  !^>6,ooo, 
Icaviyg  a  profit  of  $70,000  to  the  state. 

Library  of  Congress. 
Owen. Problems  of  the  hour. 


Library  of  Congra,,. 
Ow«n.Probl«»s  of  the  hour. 


1 6  Problems  oj  inn  s*v^^* 


orders  where  to  work  under  the  direction  of  the  city,  and  in  this 
way  can  deposit  his  or  her  crude  and  skilled  labor,  as  the  case 
may  be,  and  get  credited  for  the  same  on  the  city's  books. 

There  is  not  a  city  in  this  world  that  is  not  in  need  of  all 
kind  of  services  to  put  it  in  order,  so  that  a  decent  person  can 
have  a  decent  place  in  which  to  live.  The  idle  throngs,  the 
street  venders,  and  those  who  are  engaged  in  disreputable  occu- 
pations in  all  our  cities,  would  be  worth  more  to  these  cities 
than  a  thousand  gold  mines,  if  the  city  magistrates  were  only 
sufficiently  alert  to  seize  and  to  store  the  wealth  they  have  at 
their  command,  by  devising  plans  to  conserve,  to  deposit  and 
to  coin  it  into  serviceable  form.  What  is  most  wanted  is  that 
the  cities  should  clean  their  old  and  open  new  streets,  orna- 
ment their  parks,  reclaim  waste  districts,  regulate  and  beautify 
their  suburbs,  and  have  some  order  and  fixed  plan  to  put  every 
family  into  its  own  house ;  and  they  can  either  pay  for  the 
labor  with  city  warrants,  made  receiveable  for  city  dues,  or, 
(what  is  better)  they  can  open  books  at  the  ciiy's  employment 
bureau  and  credit  every  workman  with  what  he  or  she  does,  and 
they  can  open  books  at  the  city's  commissary  and  debit  him  or 
her  with  what  he  or  she  consumes. 

The  Venetians  adopted  this  latter  plan — the  credit  and  debit 
plan — when  they  laid  the  foundations  for  their  republic,  which 
ruled  the  commercial  world  during  nearly  three  centuries  ;  and 
the  credits  upon  the  books  of  the  city  of  Venice,  which,  by  the 
way,  were  kept  in  a  money  of  account  *  (as  there  were  not  any 
bills  or  coins  to  correspond  with  them),  were  always  at  a 
premium  over  the  famous  gold  ducats  of  that  republic. 

By  this  plan  every  city  would  have  its  own  distinct,  local,  and 
independent  ways  and  means  of  payments,  and  would  be  ab- 
solutely indifferent  to  whether  all  the  gold  and  silver  of  the 
world  were  in  Europe,  or  at  the  bottom  of  the  deepest  sea. 

The  greatest  lesson  of  the  crisis  of  i893~'94  is  that  the  cities  t 

*  "There  were  three  series  of  Roman  coins,  the  Republican,  the 
family  and  the  Imperial  coins.  The  first  were  issued  by  the  State 
minis,  the  second  by  faniiiies  which  had  purchased  the  right  of  mak- 
ing coins  ;  the  third  were  issued  by  the  Kmperors. '  Almost  evers 
Roman  city  in  Italy  and  the  colonies  had  and  exercise*!  the  right  of 
coining  money  of  its  own." 


Library  of  Congress,       f 
Owen. Problems  of  the  how.  ^^ 

Problems  of  the  Hour,  17 

in  the  United  States  were  driven  by  tiie  force  of  circumstances 
to  look  more  than  ever  into  some  way  to  provide  the  ways  and 
means  free  from  the  issuing  of  bonds  and  making  themselves 
dependent  upon  bankers  ;  and  this  must  result  sooner  or  later 
in  every  city  having  its  own  ways  and  means  of  payments, 
separate  and  distinct  from  what  might  be  used  elsewhere;  for* 
as  long  as  nations  and  cities  adopt  the  English  bank  system  of 
inflated  credits  they  will  be  made  jumping-jacks  every  time 
the  bankers  wish  to  contract  credits  and  to  foreclose  mortgages. 

The  following  queries  were  made  by  the  justly  celebrated  Bishop 
Berkley,  in  his  "Querist."  written  in  1770,  at  Cloyue,  Ireland  :  *'  134 
is  the  ceiebratcd  query  !  Whether  if  there  was  a  wall  of  brass  a  thou- 
sand cubits  high  surrounding  us,  our  natives  might  not  nevertheless 
live  cleanly  and  comfortabl}',  till  the  land  and  reap  the  fruits  thereof  ? 

*•  114.  Whether  a  nation  might  not  have  within  itself,  real  wealth 
sufficient  to  give  its  inhabitants  power  and  distinction  without  tlie 
help  of  gold  and  silver  ? 

^*  35.  Whether  power  to  command  the  industry  of  others  be  not 
real  wealth  ?  And  whether  money  be  not  in  truth  tickets  or  tokens 
for  recording  and  conveying  such  power,  and  whether  it  be  of  conse- 
quence what  material  the  tickets  are  made  of." 

t  The  Time»-I>emocrat,  August  20,  1894  :  The  business  of  New 
Orleans,  as  we  noted  some  time  ago,  has  adapted  itself  thoroughly  to 
the  certified  check  system,  first  tried  in  New  York,  and  afterwards  ad- 
opted by  the  banks  here.  What  the  banks  must  do  to  help  the  planters 
is  to  issue  certificates  of  deposit  of  I5,  |io  and  |2o.  The  men  can  then 
be  paid  in  these  as  though  in  currency,  and  as  the  checks  will  be 
taken  at  the  plantation  stores  where  most  of  the  employes  or  tenants 
deal,  they  can  easily  be  placed  in  circulation  at  once.  The  planters 
can  then  pay  off  their  men,  and  the  men  can  get  coffee,  flour,  clothing, 
or  whatever  else  they  may  require.  In  this  way,  indeed,  a  new  cur- 
rency will  be  created,  that  will  help  us  o\'er  the  present  trouble  and 
enable  us  to  harvest  the  present  crops  without  delay  of  any  kind. " 

In  Cincinnati,  we  are  told  that  the  street  car  companies  are  issuing 
5-cent  tickets  made  of  aluminum,  and  these  coins  are  found  to  be  so 
convenient  that  they  are  freely  circulated  for  s^ent  pieces  in  the  city, 
and,  ill  Kalamazoo,*  Michigan,  the  same  kind  of  currency  is  Iwing 
«aed.  But  the  lesson,  of  all  others,  which  these  panicky  times  have 
given  us,  is  the  plan  de\atcd  by  Hon.  Carter  Harrison,  Mayor  of 
Chicago.     Here  it  is. 

♦•  Chicago,  Illinois,  August  25,  1894.— Mayor  Harrison  has  a  plan 
1 


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1 8  ProbUms  of  the  Hour. 


A  CURRENT  MONEY  OF  THE  REALM. 

Study  No.  6. 

Let  us  hd'iC  a  Jlomc  Money  for   the  Home  People^  Based   upon, 
say  Ju'enty  of  the  Staple  Products  of  the  Nation,   and  made 
.  Automatic  with  the  Industries  <f  the  People. 

Let  us  jix  the  pru\:  if  ht  caJstujJi^  uon,  Ctpper,  cotton  and  coal, 
as  we  used  to  fix  the  price  of  silver,  and  as  ive  now  fix  the  price 
of  gold. 

Ccriainly  !  lei  ihc  -o^  ci  liiiRin  .'Uy  .silver  and  gold,  but 
why  should  either  gold  or  silver  be  coined  when  the  fact  is  that 
the  people  do  not  use  either  gold  or  silver  coin  to  any  great 
extent,  comparatively,  in  their  home  exchanges,  and  never  in 
their  foreign  payments ;  for  has  it  not  again  and  again  been 
proven  that  about  97^^  per  cent  of  our  domestic  payments  are 

to  relieve  the  great  striugency  existing  here  in  currency.  //  ;  v  to 
issue  city  zoarrants  for  circulation  as  money  in  the  city  of  Chicago. 
The  Mayor  said  to-daj'  :  "A  week  ago  a  bank  president  told  nie  he 
feared  there  would  be  in  Chicago  a  currency  famine  so  great  that 
matters  would  be  far  worse  than  they  now  are.  Country  banks  which 
ou}<ht  to  have  large  deposits  in  Chicago,  have  withdrawn  them.  I 
was  asked  what  could  l)e  done,  I  made  the  proposition,  that  if  the 
))anks,  the  newspapers,  the  business  men  and  the  j)eople  would  assist 
me,  I  could  give  to  the  business  men  of  Chicago  somewhere  in  the 
neighlx)rhoo<l  of  1,000,000  of  currency  a  motitli,  without  making  a 
dollar  of  it.  of  less  value  than  a  I'^nited  States  treasurj*  note.  I  propose*! 
that  with  tlie  consent  of  the  business  men,  the  people  and  the  banks, 
I  would  issue  small  'a'anants  of  $5  value,  if  jwssible  ;  if  not,  f  10 
value,  and  pay  them  all  to  the  lalK)rers  of  the  city,  salaried  men  and- 
others  who  work  for  the  city.  That  is  if  we  owe  a  contractor  |io,ooi\ 
instead  of  giving  him  one  warrant  for  that  amount,  I  will  issue  it  in 
I5  warrants.  These  he  can  pay  to  his  men,  the  men  give  them  to 
their  grocers  ;  they  will  deposit  them  in  the  banks  ;  the  banks  will 
use  them  to  pay  clearing  house  differences,  and  they  will  be  paid  out 
M  money." 


I^rohffHK  nf^  fh.'    %fnup-^  {A 


made  by  means  of  bank  checks  and  oiiitr  paper  substitutes  for 
money,  that  foreign  payments  are  made  by  offsetting  one  com- 
modity with  another,  and  that  the  balances  are  paidwitli  gold  or  ^ 
silver  bullion,  but  never  with  gold  or  silver  coin  as  coin. 

Again,  why  should  special  protection  be  given  by  our  gov- 
ernment to  gold  and  silver  bullion  over  other  products? 
What  have  gold  and  silver  miners  ever  done  that  their  ores 
should  be  coined  into  legal  tenders  to  the  exclusion  of  all 
other  products — the  products  of  all  other  producers  made  de- 
pendent up^n  their  products  ?  Did  not  the  elder  Peel,  in  1816, 
when  England  adopted  a  gold  basis,  say  :  **  You  have  doubled 
my  fortune,  but  you  have  ruined  the  people  ?  "  Has  not  our  own 
I)aniel  Webster  put  himself  on  record  to  the  efiect  that :  "  When 
all  our  paper  money  is  made  payable  in  specie  on  demand,  it 
will  prove  the  most  certain  means  that  can  be  used  to  fertilize 
the  rich  man's  held  by  the  sweat  of  the  poor  man's  brow ;  '  and 
has  not  Samuel  Calvin  told  us  that :  *'  The  whole  theory  of  specie 
basis  is  a  fraud,  and  has  entailed  upon  the  people  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States  an  amount  of  want  and  wicked- 
ness and  misery  no  pen  can  describe,  no  figure  estimate." 

It  is  unjust — it  is  a  monstrous  wrong  on  tlie  part  of  any  gov- 
ernment to  make  the  products  of  one  or  two  classes  of  pro- 
ducers legal  tender  to  seize  the  products  of  all  other  producers; 
and  this  fact  is  beginning  to  dawn  upon  those  who  are  giving 
thought  to  the  subject  of  money— its  functions,  its   substitutes 

Again,  iron,  copper,  nickel,  lead  and  tin  are  a  million  times 
more  valuable  to  society  than  gold  and  silver  ever  were,  or  ever 
can  be.  In  fact,  gold  is  of  the  least  use  of  all,  being  actually 
of  little  account  xcept  to  plug  teeth  ;  and  even  in  this  particu- 
lar use  or  monopoly,  which  gold  has  enjoyed,  aluminium  is  now 
superseding  it.  Garrison  said  ;  "  Relegate  gold  to  the  rank  of 
commodities,  where  it  belongs.  In  China  gold  and  silver  are 
merely  commodities,  whose  price  is  regulated  by  the  laws  of 
supply  and  demand." 

Alexander  Hamilton,  in  advocating  the  Mint  act  of  1792  as- 
signed two  reasons  for  not  attaching  the  unit  of  money  exclu- 
sively to  one  metal,  the  first  being  that  to  do  so  would  '*  de- 
stroy the  office  and  character  of  one  of  them  as  money  and  re- 
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ao  Problems  of  the  Hour. 

duce  it  to  the  situation  of  a  mere  iiicrchandise ; "  and  the 
second,  that  "to  annul  the  use  of  cither  of  the  metals  as 
money  is  to  abridge  the  quantity  of  the  circulating  medium, 
and  is  liable  to  all  the  objections  which  arise  from  a  compari- 
son of  the  benefits  of  a  full  with  the  evils  of  a  scanty  circu- 
lation." 

"The  first  Congress  of  the  United  States  (act  of  April  2, 
1792),  providing  for  the  coinage  of  silver  dollars,  or  units, 
each  to  be  of  the  value  of  a  Spanish  milled  dollar  as  the 
same  is  now  current,  and  to  contain  371.25  grains  of  pure 
silver,  and  fractional  pieces  of  the  same  fineness  and  propor- 
tional weight,"  and  an  eagle  or  double  eagle,  a  half  and  a 
quarter  eagle,  and  the  coins,  each  and  several,  were  to  be  of 
the  val  e  of  so  many  dollars,  or  units ;  and  the  dollar,  or  unit, 
is  371.25  grains  of  pure  silver.  The  conformity  of  gold  to 
silver,  by  the  same  statute,  at  15  to  i,  made  the  gold  coins  to 
be  multiples  of  2^'. 75  grains  of  gold — a  proportion  which  has 
since  been  altered  to  preserve  the  conformity.  This  simply 
showed  the  amount  of  gold  which  at  the  time  should  be,  myf  a 
dollar^  but  of  the  value  of  a  dollar*' 

Great  Britain,  in  1844,  fixed  the  price  of  one  ounce  of  pure 
gold  at  £2>  '7^*  9^»  *"^  *^  ^^^  remained  so  at  her  mints  ever 
since.  This  is  the  reason  that  the  price  of  gold  bullion  never 
varies  when  near  an  English  mint.  Between  April  2,  1792,  and 
February  12,  1873,  silver  and  gold  bullion  were  received  at  the 
United  States  treasury  at  the  ratio,  at  the  first  of  15  to  i,  and 
afterward  at  16  to  i,  and  the  prices  of  these  bullions  never 
varied  a  fraction  of  a  cent  at  the  United  States  mint  from 
these  ratios ;  but  when  the  free  coinage  act  in  regard  to  silver 
was  tampered  with,  February  12,  1873,  the  price  of  silver  bul- 
lion was  no  longer  protected  by  the  United  States,  and  it 
fell  in  sympathy  with  other  commodities  as  compared  with 
the  price  01  gold  bullion,  which  alone  was  protected  in  its 
price  by  the  United  States.  Now,  as  fixity  of  price  for  raw 
materials  is  essential  to  safe  and  intelligent  calculation  in  con- 
tracts for  articles  of  finished  manufacture,  why  should  not 
the  United  States  advertise  on  the  first  day  of  January,  every 
*year,  that  on  and  after  the  first  day  of  July  next  and  during 


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I'rohlems  of  the  Hour,  2^' 

the  following  fiscal  year,  it  will  pay  a  fixed  price,  on  delivery  at 
such  and  such  places,  per  ounce  for  so  many  thousand  ounces 
of  silver  ;  per  pound  for  so  many  thousand  pounds  of  nickel, 
copper,  platinum,  iridium,  aluminum  ;  a  fixed  price  per  ton  for 
so  many  million  tons  of  iron,  lead,  tin  and  coal ;  a  fixed  price 
per  bushel  for  so  many  bushels  of  wheat,  corn,  bar- 
ley, rice  and  beans  ;  and  a  fixed  price  per  bale  for  so  many 
thousand  bales  of  cotton,  hemp,  flax  and  wool.  All  of  these 
are  staple  articles  which  are  used  by  our  people,  one  way  and 
another,  in  our  utilities  and  in  our  arts  every  working  hour  in 
every  business  day  of  the  year,  and  the  amount  and  quantity  of 
each  necessary  to  supply  ovir  home  industries,  from  year  to 
year,  can  readily  be  approximated,  and  the  price  of  each  can 
be  fixed  by  the  government,  for  a  start,  at  the  average  price 
for  which  each  of  these  products  has  been  sold  during  the  last 
ten  years. 

Fr:. nee  controls  the  production  and  sale  of  its  tobacco;  so 
does  Turkey,  Spain  and  Prussia.  Russia  owns  and  sells  its 
malachite ;  Great  Britain  manufactures  and  sells  all  the  salt 
used  in  India  ;  in  Prassia  the  price  of  medicine  is  regulated 
by  the  state,  and  a  new  price  list  is  issued  annually ;  the  soap 
industry  in  Holland  now  brings  a  revenue  of  ;£"i  50,000  a  year 
to  the  government ;  and  in  the  United  Stntes  the  production 
and  price  of  oil,  sugar,  wheat,  flour,  beef,  pork,  coffins,  etc., 
etc.,  are  fixed  and  unfixed  by  trusts  for  the  private  revenues 
of  private  citizens ;  therefore,  the  cities,  the  states  and  the 
nation  must  step  in  and  fix  the  prices  and  production  of  the 
staple  articles  of  food  and  manufacture,  or  allow  themselves  to 
be  set  aside  for,  by  and  in  the  interest  of  specially  privileged 
classes  who  are  fast  enslaving  the  masses ;  for  has  not  our 
Attorney  General,  in  his  defense  of  the  trusts,  said  :  **  Property 
is  monopoly." 

The  plan  here  suggested  is  that  the  United  States  go\^em- 
ment  fix  the  quantity  it  will  buy*  and  the  price  it  will  pay  for 


♦  William  McKinley,  immediately  after  tMe  adjournment  of  the 
Fifty-first  Congress,  acceded  to  the  request  of  the  editor  of  the  North 
American  Review,  and  said  that  the  passage  of  the  Sherman  Silver 


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22  Problems  of  the  Hour, 

say  each  of  the  twenty  leading  staple  productions  of  the 
United  States ;  and  will,  on  receipt  of  any  one  of  the  same, 
at  the  depositories  to  be  established,  issue  in  payment  treas- 
ury paper  money,  that  will  be  carefully  engraved  and  guard- 
edly issued,  and  made  receivable  in  payment  for  all  dues  to 
the  United  States,  just  as  tne  Hamburg  Bank  issues  its  cur- 
rency based  upon  silver  bullion.  This  money,  therefore,  could 
not  be  issi.ed  except  for  full  value  received  and  deposited, 
and  when  the  government  sold  any  of  these  deposits  for  the 
price  paid,  this  money  would  come  back  to  the  source  of  its 
issue  and  "ould  be  used  to  buy  more  bar  gold,  bar  silver,  pig 
iron  and  wheat  bushels,  etc. ;  or,  like  the  postage  stamp,  hav- 
ing done  its  duty  once,  it  could  be  destroyed. 

For  subsidiary  coins,  aluminum  would  be  best,  for  with  an 
;iiioy  of  copper,  it  is  light,  durable,  pretty  and  comparatively 
inexpensive  but  there  should  be  issued,  also,  postal  currency, 
in  paper,  for  five,  ten,  twenty-five  and  fifty  cents  to  facilitate 
persons  in  sending  money  in  letters. 

The  fixing  of  the  prices  of  these  staple  products,  from  year 
to  year,  by  the  government,  would  not  necessarily  bring  but  a 
small  part  of  these  products  to  the  depositories,  or  into  the  care, 
in  any  way  of  the  government,  any  more  than  the  fixing  of  the 
prices  for  gold  and  silver  has  brought  the  gold  and  silver  needed 
in  the  arts  to  the  vaults  of  our  treasury  ;  but  it  would,  probably, 


Purchase  law  was  a  triumph,  and  in  these  words  :  "Among  the  more  im- 
portant pieces  of  legislation  accomplished  is  the  Silver  bill,  which 
i^tov\Ae*i  iot  the  purchase  of  silver  bullion  and  the  issue  of  Treasury 
notes  thereon.  ^  It  directs  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  purchase 
from  time  to  time  silver  bullion  to  the  aggregate  amount  of  4,500,000 
ounces  monthly,  or  so  much  thereof  as  may  be  offered  in  each  month 
at  the  market  price,  not  exceeding  $1  for  372.55  grains  of  pure  silver, 
and  to  issue  in  payment  for  the  pmrchases  Treasury  notes  of  the  United 
States  in  denominations  not  less  than  $1  nor  more  than  |i,ooo  which 
notes  arc  redeemable  in  silver.  This  law  will  utilize  every  ounce  of 
the  silver  product  of  the  country  and  more — utilize  it  for  money  and 
turn  it  into  channels  of  trade  and  avenues  of  business.  As  a  result, 
silver  is  nearer  parity  with  gold  to-day  than  it  has  been  for  the  last 
fifteen  or  eighteen  years.  The  circulating  medium  is  increased  and 
made  absolutely  sale,  with  all  the  money  of  the  country  interchange- 


Library  of  Congress. 
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Problems  of  the  Hour.  23 

bring  enough  to  supply  a  sufficient  amount  of  current  money  of 
the  reahn  to  encourage  our  great  industries  to  take  new  life  and 
new  hope. 

What  an  impetus  such  an  enactment  would  give  to  all  classes 
of  home  industries,  and  what  a  stable,  plentiful,  elastic  and  ex- 
cellent currency  this  would  make  for  the  whole  people.  Again, 
w'Mt  a  cause  for  congratulation  it  would  be  to  have  these  great 
leading  staple  products  of  the  nation  taken  out  from  the  ruin- 
ous influences  of  the  "  Produce  Exchanges  " — from  these  gam- 
bling dens  r  ^  our  metroplitan  cities — and  to  have  their  prices 
fixed,  from  one  year  to  another,  so  that  our  leading  producers 
and  large  manufacturers  could  with  a  certainty  estimate  the 
cost  of  the  same  ahead.  It  is  a  blow  to  honest  industry  that 
business  in  this  stage  of  our  boasted  civilization  is  made  an 
uncertainty  and  a  gamble,  just  because  governments  insist  that 
they  are  created  only  to  tax  the  people,  to  declare  war  and  to 
legislate  for  special  and  private  monopolies. 

There  is  not  anything  in  the  constitution  against  this  plan. 
However,  some  moss-back  always  says  that  it  is  unconstitu- 
tional whenever  a  suggestion  is  made  to  liberate  black  chattel 
slaves,  to  relieve  white  wage  slaves,  or  to  advance,  in  any  way, 
our  people  toward  the  light  and  the  better  way.  However,  the 
constitution  does  not  seem  to  prevent  our  secretary  of  the 
treasury  from  coining  a  dollar  when  23.22  grains  of  pure  gold 
are  offered  ;  nor  did  it  stop  him  from  dickering  for  four  millions 
and  more  ounces  of  silver,  per  month,  some  two  years  ago,  in 
the  open  market ;  or  from  paying  out  "greenbacks,"  during  the 
sixties,  for  food  supplies,  clothing  and  war  materials,  ships, 
salaries,  etc.,  and  it  may  be  well  for  us  to  remember,  in  con- 


abie  with  goM  and  silver  and  re<leemable  in  either  or  lx)th  of  these 
metals." 

It  must  be  understood  that  the  Sherman  Silver  Purchase  law  did 
not  fix  the  price  of  silver,  but  on  the  contrar>'  our  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  went  into  the  market  as  a  **  bear  '♦  and  did  what  he  could  to 
get  the  silver  as  low  in  price  as  possible  before  he  purchased  it.  The 
proposition  we  make  is  that  the  price  of  silver  be  fixed  in  common 
with  other  leading  commodities  of  United  States  production,  and  that 
the  price  shall  be  maintained  from  year  to  year.  A.  K.  O. 


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\ 

24  Problems  0/  the  Hour, 

nection  with  what  is  constitutional,  and  with  what  is  not  con- 
stitutional that  our  good,  old,  sterling  patriot  and  philosopher, 
Peter  Cooper,  has  told  us  that:  "  No  vested  rights  can  stand 
in  the  face  of  the  public  welfare  ;  common  and  statute  law  recog- 
nizes this  principle.  Hence,  aP  vested  rights  can  be  repealed 
by  the  law-making  power  that  conferred  them.  Under  this 
principle  private  property  can  be  taken  for  public  use,  and  all 
coiporate  rights  can  be  abolished  that  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
public  welfare." 

What  must  we  think  of  a  government  that  consents  to  buy  two 
comparatively  worthless  metals — gold  and  silver — which  are 
mostly  used  to  make  teapots,  goblets,  spoons,  watch  cases,  ear 
and  finger  rings  and  such  like  non-essentials,  and  yet  vould  con- 
tend that  it  had  constitutional  grounds  not  to  base  its  current 
money  of  the  realm  upon  such  important  and  useful  metals  as 
iron,  nickel,  tin,  lead  and  aluminum  ? 


PRICES. 

Study  No  7. 

raw  material,  including  land  and  labor. 

Must  be  Separated  from   Manufactured  Articles^   in   which   a 
Good  Dinner  is  Included^  before  Prices  can  be  Understood, 

Frequently  we  read  letters  advocating  United  States  treasury 
money,  which  contain  quotations  from  the  teachings  of  such 
English  "  free  tr^de  "  and  "  bank  credit  despotism  '*  teachers  as 
Mill  and  Walker.  Recently  the  United  States  Monetary  Com- 
mission of  1877  has  been  brought  into  their  support — which  is 
simply  confusion  worse  confounded.  Please,  therefore,  publish 
the  selections  as  given  below,  and  insert  a  clipping  from  my 
scrap-book  in  answer  to  the  same  : 

"  Other  things  being  equal,  the  general  average  of  prices  is 
determined  bv  the  quantity  of  currency  in  circulation,  and 
prices  advance  or  recede  as  that  is  increased  or  diminished. 
,     .     .     The  general  prices  of  all  objects  of  value  will  ever 


Problems  of  the  Hour.  25 

depend  upon  the  quantity  of  currency  existing  in  the  country  in 
which  they  are  produced  and  sold.  This  is  an  economic  law 
as  certain  as  any  of  the  laws  of  Nature."— Walker's  Science  of 
Wealth,  p.  221. 


"  If  the  whole  money  in  circulation  was  doubled,  prices  would 
be  doubled.  If  it  was  only  increased  one-fourth,  prices  would 
rise  one-fourth."— Mill,  Prin.  Pol.  Economy,  vol.  II.,  p.  29. 

"General  prosperity  and  a  general  fall  in  prices  never  did  and 
never  can  coexist."  —P.  15,  Vol.  I.,  Dept.  U.  S.  Mon.  Com., 
1877. 


A.  K.  Owen  published  the  following  in  The  Delaware  County 
Democrat,  1875  •  ^"  discussing  the  fall  and  rise  of  prices  rela- 
tive to  a  scarcity  or  abundance  of  current  money,  there  is  not  a 
suP.icient  distinction  made  between  the  price  of  raw  material  and 
that  of  the  manufactured  article.  In  fact,  few  writers  or  public 
speakers  ever  make  any  distinction  whatever  ;  and,  hence  speak- 
ing of  values,  prices,  etc.,  they  rather  add  to  the  complications  of 
the  discussion  than  simplify  them.  For  instance:  One  writer 
maintains  that  plenty  of  money,  at  low  interest,  will  make  prices 
advance,  and  he  is  right  if  he  has  reference  to  raw  material,  in 
which  labor  and  land  are  included  ;  and  a  stump  orator  argues, 
and  a  simple,  easy-going  editor  publishes,  that  plenty  of  money, 
at  a  low  rate  of  interest,  will  make  prices  fall,  and  they  are 
equally  correct  in  their  statement  if  they  have  reference  to  man- 
ufactured articles.  Hence,  we  maintain  that  most  persons  who 
undertake  to  inform  the  public,  labor,  not  always  intentionally, 
yet  still  they  labor  to  confuse*' my  intelligent  readers." 

The  political  economists  of  the  inductive  school  maintain 
that  a  current  money  of  the  realm,  made  interconvertible  with 
the  nation's  bonds  at  a  low  rate  of  interest,  and  issued  in  har- 
mony with  the  people's  industries,  will  advance  the  price  of  raw 
materials,  in  which  are  included  labor  and  land,  and  will  lessen 
the  price  of  manufactured  articles  of  all  kind.  Thus,  while  the 
laborer  can  command  more  money  for  liis  services,  the  land- 
owner more  money  for  his  land,  and  the  cotton,  wool,  wheat 


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26  /^rod/ems  of  the  Hour, 

and  potato  grower  more  money  for  his  raw  product,  these  and 
all  may  command  the  manufactured  necessities  and  luxuries  of 
life,  including  a  good  dinner,  for  less  money,  i.  e.,  tbnt  the  price 
of  the  raw  material  will  approximate  closer  to  the  price  of  the 
manufactured  article.  If  it  were  otherwise,  it  would  not  be  har- 
mony— hence,  could  not  be  upon  the  basis  of  a  true  principle.  ^ 
Nature's  laws  invariably  act  in  harmony.  Mankind  approxi-  | 
mate  to  just  actions  as  they  approach  harmony  of  interests.  | 

As   raw   material,  in    which    labor    and    land    are    included,       :| 
approximate  in   price  to  the   price  of  manufactured    articles,       I 
civilization  advances,  and  the  reverse,  i.  e.,  when  raw  materials,      v 
in  which  ar^  included  land  and  labor,  fall  in  price,  and  tiie  price 
of  manufactured  articles  do  not  fall  in  the  same  proportion,  then 
v.e  retrograde  towards  barbarism.     A  ton  of  rags  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains  is  not  worth  a  quire  of  paper ;  but  when  brought  to 
the  Missouri  River — where  I  assume  there  is  a  paper  mill — a 
ton  of  rags  will  buy  several  quires  of  paper. 

Under  nominal  conditions,  land,  labor  and  raw  material  in- 
crease in  value  as  they  near  population  and  diversified  indus- 
tries, and  the  articles  manufactured  by  them  become  cheaper 
and  better  at  those  times  when  land,  labor  and  raw  material 
cost  the  most.     The  reverse  of  such  conditions  is  barbarism. 

The  deductive  school  of  political  economy  says :  "  The 
hoight  of  usefulness  and  the  essential,  quality  for  a  statesman 
is  to  *  look  out  for  number  one,'  and  thereby  to  let  the  one  thou- 
sand millions  of  other  human  beings  upon  this  earth  get  over 
Jord^^n's  road  the  best  they  may  have  the  chance  to  do." 
Inductive  philosophy  teaches  us  that  in  making  people  prosper 
ous  and  consequently  happy  and  useful,  we  take  the  positive, 
and  certainly  the  more  laudable  way  to  secure  our  uwn  interests 
i.  e.,  to  better  ihe  condition  of  the  masses  is  the  basis  of  ou 
advancement  to  intellectual,  moral  and  realized  civilization. 

We  ask  that  our  remarks  be  well  studied  before  commented 
upon. 


Probh'?n>  of  fj,e  Hour.  27 

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PROTECTIVE    TARIFF  AND   PATENT  LAWS. 

Srri)\    N,o.  8. 
( I'rom  the  **  Philadelphia  Enquirer,"  Jtily  10.  1875.) 

Vv  I  I  H      A.     rv.    oWKN,     L.     h.,   iKUJKt    l()R     OF     THE 
AUSTIN- roPCH.onAMPo  PACIFK-. 

Reporter. — "  The  one  or  two  simple  little  laws,  almost  un- 
known because  of  their  simplicity,  whith  alone  rescue  us  from 
savageism,''  which  you  n-fer  to  in  your  **  Memorial  "  to  Con- 
fXtess,  which  are  they  ? 

Mr-!  ()\M  N. — They  are  the  tariff  and  patent  laws.  The 
former  protects  our  industries  from  the  wealth  and  monopoly 
of  foreigners — more  particularly  from  the  English,  who,  by 
means  of  an  overgrown  and  inflated  system  of  bank-credit,  are 
enabled  to  centralize  immense  power  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
men.  The  latter  protects  us  individually,  in  our  inventions, 
from  the  wealth  and  monopoly  of  our  own  countrymen.  What 
one  does  for  us  as  a  nation,  the  other  accomplishes  for  us  as 
individuals.  The  patent  law  is  the  complement  to  the  tariff, 
and  they  together  preserve  us  from  barbarism  because  they 
alone  protect  us  in  our  ii^dividuality.  Germany  is  superior  to 
the  United  States  in  science,  England  in  literature,  and  France  in 
art ;  but  Americ^^  is  greater  than  either,  because  among  her  forty 
millions  of  people,  there  are  six  millions  who  have  independent 
homes.*  This  has  been  secured  by  the  laws  which  encourage 
and  foster  nationality  and  individuality,  of  which  the  patent  and 
the  tariff  are  the  basis.  Without  these  simple  little  laws,  as  im- 
perfect and  as  much  tampered  with  as  they  are,  we  would  be  a 

*  This  is  not  the  ^.v,-v  now,  however,  with  the  United  States.  In 
1877  there  were  less  than  5oo,ocxo  unmortgaged  homes  here  ;  while  ill 
I^rance  there  were  over  7,500,000, 


2i^  J'rohkms  of  i fir  /Your. 

mere  tribe  of  savages,  if  not  with   nngs   iii 
scanty  of  clothes.     And  allow  me  to  add,  aprop  nis  ques- 

tion, that  the  instruction  was  to  "subdue  \\.r  earth,"  but  men 
havL  put  forth  their  mightiest  energies  to  embarrass  and  to  en- 
blav^i  each  other.  Isolated  individuals  scattered  over  this 
eaith's  surface  are  inventing  and  perfecting  labor-saving  ma- 
chines, and  their  efforts  are  daily  emancipating  labor  from 
drudgery  and  elevating  mankind  to  higher  duties,  while  priests, 
kings,  congressmen  and  soldiers  are  combining  church,  state, 
law  and  powder  to  make  war,  to  destroy  the  works  and  to  en- 
slave the  industries  of  their  respective  j^coples,  and  the  record 
of  the  efforts  of  these  priests,  kings,  congressmen  and  soldiers, 
and  their  conr.jined  efforts  to  destroy  individuality  and  science, 
and  the  resistance  which  this  individuality  and  science  offer  to 
their  injustice,  make  up  history,  ancient  and  modern. 

R. — My  object  to-day  is  to  question  you  upon  money.  Is  it 
your  opinion  that  gold  is  useless  as  a  coin  ? 

O, — Yes  ;  not  only  useless  but  detrimental  to  commerce. 

Gold  as  a  legal  tender  coin  is  the  greatest  instrument  of  tor- 
ture the  world  has  ever  experienced.  The  Auto-da-fe  and  the 
body-puller  of  the  Spanish  inquisition,  the  car  of  Juggernaut, 
the  knife  of  the  Celtic  Druid,  and  the  obsidian  of  the  Aztec 
priest,  who  sacrificed  annually  39,000  of  the  best  formed  and 
most  talented  Mexicans,  were  but  playthings  in  comparison  to 
gold  coin  as  legal  tender,  and  this  simply  because  gold  coin  has 
been  so  scarce  and  at  so  high  a  price  and  interest  as  to  have 
denied  to  the  masses  the  right  to  labor  or  to  enjoy  the  wealth 
which  their  labor  has  produced. 

R. — Is  not  gold  coin  a  perfect  money  ? 

O. — No,  sir.  Gold  coin  can  never  be  even  a  good  money. 
It  has  heretofore  been,  at  best,  but  a  commodity,  and  has  been 
and  is  still  sold  in  the  public  market  to  the  highest  bidder. 
The  Government,  by  making  gold  coin  a  legal  tender,  recog- 
nizes one  class  of  labor  to  the  disfranchisement  of  other  occu- 
pations;  or,  what  is  the  same  thing,  it  subsidizes  other  indus- 
tries to  the  worst  class  of  adventurers. 

R. — But  gold  is  the  mj^t  precious  metal,  and,  therefore,  large 
values  may  be  pressed*  into  the  most  convenient  bulk. 


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^.—V^xAow  me,  there  arc  eight  metals— indium,  vanadium, 
ruthenium,  rhodium,  platinum,  uranium,  osmium  and  irridium 
— more  valuable  than  gold.  When  one  substance  or  commodity 
is  exchanged  for  another,  it  is  barter.  Gold  is  a  convenient 
metal  for  barter,  but  should  not  be  stamped  otherwise  than  to 
specify  its  weight  and  carat.  It  would  then  go  into  the  arts, 
its  proper  place,  for  there  it  is  useful.  Suppose  a  modern  Fagin 
shoi' J  chance  to  stumble  upon  a  mass  of  gold  a  hundred  yards 
square,  which  is  likely  to  occur  when  Mexico  is  looked  over, 
would  not  this  wretch  subsidize  the  labor  of  the  world  to  his 
foul  purposes  ^  Is  this  state  of  society  civilization  or  bar- 
barism ?  Now,  if  the  government  were  to  issue  a  legal  tender 
for  services  rendered  and  material  employed,  this  adventurous 
and  degraded  class,  who  spend  their  lives  disgraceful  to  them- 
selves and  an  injury  to  others,  would  never  obtain  a  position 
superior  to  the  most  worthy,  industrious  and  well-to-do-citizens, 
as  they  now  frequently  do. 

R. — But  gold  has  an  intrinsic  value  which  paper  has  not  and 
never  can  have. 

O. — Paper  legal  tenders  have  an  intrinsic  value  just  so  long 
as  the  Government  is  recognized  by  its  own  f>eople.  Gold  and 
silver  coin,  as  such,  cannot  have  any  more.  Speaking  strictly 
of  intrinsic  value,  gold  has  not  any,  while  wheat,  corn,  potatoes 
have.  Suppose,  for  instance,  you  were  adrift  upon  the  ocean, 
and  had  a  chest  of  gold  and  a  pound  of  flour,  which  would  have 
the  intrinsic  value  ?  Now  gold  and  silver  bullion  have  an  in- 
trinsic value  only  in  those  countries  where  they  are  used  for 
ornaments  and  art.  When  these  metals  are  coined  they  lose 
their  intrinsic  value  as  metals,  because  it  is  against  the  law  to 
use  them  for  othei  purposes  than  current  money,  and  every 
people  who  have  ob^  lined  any  respectability  in  commerce  have 
condemned  metals  for  general  business  transactions.  Those 
who  wish  gold  and  silver  to  retain  their  intrinsic  value  should 
do  all  they  can  to  get  a  paper  legal  tender,  so  as  to  allow  gold 
and  silver,  now  more  than  uselessly  employed  because  out  of 
their  proper  places,  to  go  where  they  belong,  and.  in  conse- 
quence, where  they  are  of  the  most  service. 

Again,    if,    according    to  the  "gold  bug,"  gold    is  the  most 


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30  Problems  of  the  Hour, 

precious  metal,  and,  therefore,  gold  is  the  best  substance  for  a 
perfect  money,  why  do  they  not,  under  the  same  argument,  wish 
gold  redeemed  with  indium,  wliich  science  and  barter  tells  us  is 
more  precious  ?  During  the  war  services  were  performed,  sub- 
stances exchanged,  and  our  industries  enlarged  to  conform  with 
the  volume  of  United  States  greenbacks.  McCuUoch,  con- 
tracted this  volume  to  conform  with  the  quantity  of  gold  coin 
we  possessed.  At  least  this  was  his  aim,  and,  consequently, 
contracted  every  industry  in  that  proportion.  Now,  why  do  not 
the  metallic  basis  men  support  this  suicidal  policy  by  being 
still  more  patriotic  and  heroic,  and  contract  the  gold  coins  to 
conform  with  the  indium  we  possess  ?  If  England  led,  would 
it  be  wise  for  us  to  follow  ? 

R. — Do  3'ou  argue  that  the  greenback  could  ever  be  kept  at 
par  with  *;old  coin. 

(). — 'I'he  greenback  is  the  par  of  the  unit  of  our  money  of 
account,  and  the  standard  of  our  ways  and  means  of  payment, 
and  would  be  at  a  premium  over  gold  coin,  or  indium  coin,  if  it 
were  alone  made  a  legal  tender  for  all  dues  to  the  Government. 
Apropos  to  this,  allow  me  to  read  a  paragraph  from  Brantz- 
Mayer's  History,  Vol.  i,  page  172,  where  it  was  shown  that 
even  chickens  were  made  a  legal  tender  for  taxes,  and  how  the 
demand  and  scarcity  made  them,  like  our  gold  coin,  sell  at  a 
premium  several  times  over  their  par  value. 

In  ^594,  Philip  the  Second,  finding  himself  straitened  for 
nic?iis  to  carr)^  on  the  European  wars  in  which  he  was  engaged, 
recurred  to  the  unfortunate  and  unjust  system  of  forced  loans 
to  increase  his  revenue.  He  did  not  confine  himself  in  this 
odious  compulsory  tax  to  the  Old  World,  which  was  the  most 
concerned  in  the  result  of  his  wars,  but  instructed  Velasco 
Viceroy  of  Mexico,  to  impose  a  tribute  of  four  reals,  or  fifty, 
cents,  upon  the  Indians,  in  addition  to  the  sum  they  already 
paid  his  majesty.  Velasco  reluctantly  undertook  the  unwelcome 
task,  but,  anxious  to  lighten  the  burden  of  the  natives  as  much 
as  possible,  and  at  the  same  time,  to  foster  the  raising  of  poul 
try  and  cattle,  he  compounded  the  whole  tax  of  a  dollar,  which 
they  were  obliged  to  pay,  for  seven  reals,  or  eirhty-sevt-n 
and   one-haK    cents,    and  one  (owl,  which  at   that    time    was 

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'C-f-r-,^ 


ProhUms  i^Hntbur.  %\ 


valued  at  a  single  roal,  or  twelve  and  one-half  cents.  This, 
it  will  be  perceived,  was  amiably  designed  by  the  Vice- 
roy, but  became  immediately  the  subject  of  gross  abuse. 
The  Indians  are  slowly  moved  either  to  new  modes  of  culti- 
vation or  to  new  objects  of  care,  even  of  the  most  domestic 
and  useful  character.  Instead  of  devoting  themselves  to  the 
raising  of  poultry  with  the  industrious  thrift  that  would  have 
saved  one-eighth  of  their  taxation  or  twelve  and  a  half  per 
cent.,  they  allowed  the  time  to  pass  without  providing  the  re- 
quired bird  in  their  homestead,  so  that  when  the  tax  gatherer 
arrived  they  were  forced  to  buy  the  fowl  instead  of  selling  it. 
This  of  cour:  j  raised  the  price,  and  the  consequence  was  that 
the  Indian  «\iS  obliged  often  to  pay  two  or  three  reals  more 
than  the  original  amount  of  the  whole  taxation  of  a  dollar.  It 
is  related  that  one  of  th'=i  oidores  (tax  collectors)  who  had  taken 
eight  hundred  fowl,  reserved  two  hundred  for  the  consumption 
of  his  house,  and  through  an  agent  sold  the  rest  for  three  reals 
or  thirty-seven  and  a  half  cents  each,  by  which  he  contrived  to 
make  a  profit  of  two  hundred  per  cent.  Various  efforts  were 
made  to  remedy  this  shameful  abuse,  or  to  revoke  the  decree, 
but  the  system  was  found  too  profitable  to  be  abandoned  with- 
out a  severe  struggle. 

R. — Mr.  Owen,  what  were  the  mediums  for  exchange  used 
by  the  Aztecs  when  found  by  the  Spaniards  > 

O. — There  was  a  currency  of  different  values  regulated  by 
trade,  which  consisted  of  quills  filled  with  gold  dust ;  of  pieces 
of  tin  cut  in  the  form  of  a  T;  of  balls  of  cotton,  and  bags  of 
cacao  containing  a  specific  number  of  grains.  The  greater 
part  of  the  Aztec  trade  was,  nevertheless,  carried  on  by  barter ; 
and  thus  we  find  that  the  taxes  which  were  collected  by  Monte- 
zuma from  the  Crown  Lands  and  the  occupations  of  the  people 
were  paid  in  cott.^n  dresses  and  mantles  of  feather  work,  orna- 
mented armor,  vases  of  gold,  gold  dust,  bands  and  bracelets, 
crystals,  gilt  and  varnished  jars  and  goblets,  bells,  arms  and 
utensils  of  copper,  reams  of  paper,  grain,  fruits,  copal,  amber, 
cochineal,  cacao,  wild  animals,  birds,  timber,  ni  Us,  and  a 
general  medley,   in  which  the  luxuries  and  necessaries  of  life 


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Problems  of  the  Hour. 

'were  strangely  mixed.  As  uncivilized  as  this  was,  I  ask,  in  a1 
justice,  was  it  not  a  more  liberal  recognition  of  the  general  in- 
dustries of  the  country  than  our  system  of  subsidizing  all  labor 
to  gold  adventurc-s  ? 

In  reading  the  report  of  A.  B.  Steinberger  on  the  Samoan 
Islands,  some  weeks  ago,  I  find  this  paragraph,  which  I  think 
is  of  intrinsic  value  in  the  consideration  of  our  financial  re- 
quirements : 

"  Je,  the  Samoan  *  fine  mat,'  enters  more  largely  into  all  the 
political  ramifications  of  the  people  than  any  creed,  custom  or 
tradit'  ^r  which  they  have  ever  held.  It  protects  caste,  fosters 
the  igno.  .r*^  thraldom  of  the  people,  and  alone  serves  to  per- 
petuate barbaric  prejudices.  A  husband  will  leave  his  wife 
for  another  with   no  other  purpose  than  the  acquisition  of  a 

*  fine  mat.'  War  may  be  declared  and  peace  made  for  the  pos- 
session of  a  *  sacred  mat.*  Families  count  their  wealth,  and  all 
personal  and  real  estate  is  computed  in  'fine  mats.'  Chiefs 
and  families  have  *fine  mats,'  but  only  districts  and  govern- 
ments have  *  sacred  mats.*  *  *  *  For  the  secure  establishment 
and  maintenance  of  a  home  and  foreign  government  in  Samoa, 
the  hereditary  and  fictitious  value  of  '  fine  n^its  *  must  be  de- 
stroyed. This  could  best  be  done  by  affixing  a  government 
stamp  and  making  them  a  circulating  medium,  subject  to  re- 
demption as  is  paper  money." 

Now,  why  Mr.  Steinberger  would  wish  one  hereditary  and 
fictitious  value — 'fine  mats* — redeemed  by  another  heredi- 
tary and  fictitious  value — gold  coin — is  only  to  be  accounted 
for  by  the  fact  that  a  Christian  often  sees  a  mote  in  his  neigh- 
bor's eye,  when  at  the  same  instant  there  is  a  tenpenny  nail  stick- 
ing out  of  his  own.  Had  an  intelligent  Samoan  visited  our 
shores  and  re^^orted  our  country,  its  people  and  customs,  in  his 
remarks  upon  the  hereditary  and  fictitious  value  of  our  gold 
coin,  and  its  evil  influence  in  our  politics,  creed^,  customs,  castes 
and  misinformations,  he  might  have  suggested'ko  his  king,  as 
Steinberger,  Esq.  did  to  our  president,  that  there  could  be  no 
home  for  foreign  government — particularly  the  foreign — until 
the  United  States  would  make  gold  coin  redeemable  in  Samoan 

*  fine  mats.'     After  all,  does  it  not  come  to  our  minds,  more  and 

Library  of  Congress. 
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"WEi  ''^ilS 


Problems  of  the  Hour.  33 

more  as  our  experience  grows,   that    the  intrinsic  value  of   a 
thing  is  worth  just  the  love  we  set  upon  it  ? 

One  word  more  An  article  of  commerce,  having  a  demand, 
hence  a  value,  can  never  be  a  good  money.  The  Samoan>/^ 
mats  md  gold  coin  cannot  possibly  be  other  than  barbaric 
money.  The  system  of  barter,  as  systemized  under  the  Aztecs, 
was  infinitely  nearer  just  to  the  p^;ople  than  the  mixed,  repu- 
diated, and  contracted  currency  of  the  United  States  after  one 
hund'-cd  years  of  what  is  styled  self-government.  But  for  the 
full  subject  upon  money,  its  history,  unassociated  with  theories, 
you  must  see  the  article  "  Money,"  in  Appleton's  New  Ency- 
clopaedia. 


THE  BEST  BOOKS    EXAMPLES  IN  PAYMENTS 

AND   LAWS. 

Study  No.  9. 

It  is  asked  what  are  the  most  important  books  on  the  money 
question  ;  the  most  marked  examples,  not  "  theories,"  in  pay- 
ments that  have  been  given  at  any  time,  and  the  best  laws  that 
have  ever  been  promulgated  for  the  people. 

The  books  are  two  :  first,  and  above  ail,  is  "  The  Ways  and 
Means  of  Payments,"  by  Stephen  Colwell,  of  Philadelphia, 
which  was  issued  about  1854;  the  second  is  "Querist,"  by 
Bishop  Berkley,  of  Ireland,  published  in  1770. 

The  important  lessons  in  actual  payments  are  two :  First, 
the  plan  by  which  the  market  house  in  St.  Peter's,  Guernsey, 
was  built  by  order  of  the  governor.  This  is  recorded  by  Jona- 
than Duncan,  in  h's  interesting  and  now  very  rare  book,  en- 
titled, *'  Bank  Charters."  This  little  volume  is  at  least  fifty 
years  old,  but  like  true  art,  it  is  all  the  better  for  its  age,  hav- 
ing been  written  entirely  free  from  the  influences  of  the  money 
potentates  who,  in  these  our  pursy  days,  make  business  men, 
legislators  and  governments  tremble  when  it  is  proposed  to 
interfere  with  the  banker's  monopoly  to  infiate  our  currencies. 

The  plan  was  quite  simple.      The   citizens   of  St.    Peter's 

\ 


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34  Problems  of  the  Hour. 

waited  upon  the  governor  of  their  island  and  said  that  they 
were  greatly  in  need  of  a  covered  market  house.  The  governor 
questioned  them  as  to  whether  they  had  the  raw  materials  and 
the  crude  and  skilled  labor  to  make  such  a  building  as  they 
wished.  They  replied  that  they  had,  and  that  they  only  lacked 
the  money  necessary  to  pay  for  the  materials  and  the  labor. 
*'  Well,"  the  governor  replied,  "  if  that  is  all  that  is  iieccssary, 
your  wishes  can  readily  be  compiled  with.  You  go  to  work,^ 
make  brick,  tile  and  mortar,  quarry  slate  for  the  roof  and  get 
your  best  carpenters  to  do  the  woodwork,  etc.,  etc.,  and  I  will 
in  the  name  of  the  city  of  St.  Peter's,  issue  a  market  house 
money  and  pay  each  one  of  you  for  what  you  deliver  and  do." 
j'hese  people  went  to  work;  the  governor  paid  them  with 
the  ci'.y's  money,  the  shopkeepers,  market-women  and  land- 
lords took  the  money,  for  all  knew  that  it  was  issued  tor  labor 
and  materials  put  ipto  their  own  market  hou«e,^and  that  the 
rentals  would  re^'eem  all  that  vwould  be  issued.  The  new  cur- 
''re(icy  stimulated  every .DnSftiess  in  the  tity  to  new  life,  every 
man  sang  at  his  work,  and  when  the  market  house  was  ready, 
the  stalls  were  rented  to  the  market  people,  and  as  the  rents 
could  only  be  paidin*the  city's  .money  which  had  been  issued 
to  build  the  market  hoase,  the  people  had  to  struggle  to  get 
this  certain  money ;  and  hence,  they  gave  their  farm  truck 
freely  and  gladly  foi  It.  Within  ten  years  all  the  money^  which 
had  been  issued  to  build  the  market  house  was  redeemed  by 
stall  rentals  and  was  in  the  city's  treasury.  Then  the  governor 
issued  a  public  call,  the  citizehs  marched  in  procession^with 
the  governor  at  their  head  to  the  city  plaza,  and  there  the  ^^ 
governor  counted  the  money  before*  the  people  and  burned  it 
in  the  way  of  cancellation.  ,  Bvaicraft  Library' 

In  this  record  we  have  the  greatest  lesson  in  payments*  that 
has  ever  been  taught.  And  had  the  W^orld's  Fair'  comniis-  * 
sioners  and  the  mayor  of  Chicago  adopted  this  plan,  as  it  was 
suggested  to  them  in  a  series  of  letters  by  the  author  t>f 
these  studies,  the  World's  Exposition  would  not  have  cost 
Chicago,  the  stateaf,  or  the 'nation  one  rupee.  Chicago 
would  have  put  into  circulation  $20,000,000  of  the  nearest 
"honest "   money   that   was  jevel   issued ;   labor,   crude    and 

... , - mi.  .^.. 


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m^ft^ 


ProbUms  ef  the  Hour.  ^- 

skilled,  could  have  been  jnid  full  wages,  and  a  stmgi^le  to  get 
this  money  for  gate  fares,  for  rentals,  and  for  '^  1  every 
kind  of  payments  made  to  and  inside  the  Exposition,  by  50,000 
to  150,000  people  a  day,  during  six  months,  would  have  kept 
thit  Exposition  money,  issued  in  the  name  of  the  city  of 
Chicago,  at  a  premium  over  the  gold,  or  any  other  dollar.  This 
would  have  been  an  object  lesson  which  would  h.-'ve  borne  its 
fruit  the  world  over.  It  would  have  been  the  means  of  bringing 
more  wealth  to  the  world  than  if  Columbus  had  returned  to 
life  and  announced  that  he  had  discovered  another  world  for 
us  to  setr  and  develop.  The  second  great  lesson  in  pay- 
ments is  t  -  way  that  The  Credit  Foncier  Company  paid  for 
its  irrigating  ditch  at  Topolobampo,  Sinaloa,  Mexico.  The 
length  of  the  ditch  is  6^^  miles,  the  length  of  the  laterals,  8 
miles,  the  amount  of  earth  excavated  in  the  main  ditch,  325,000 
cubic  yards.  The  depth  of  the  headgate  at  the  Fuerte  River  is 
22  feet,  gradually  decreasing  to  3  feet  at  tailgate,  at  which 
point  the  laterals  begin.  Width  at  bottom  of  ditch  8  feet 
with  a  slope  of  one  to  one  or  angle  of  45  degrees,  gradually, 
increasing  at  the  last  three-fourths  of  a  mile  to  22  feet  at  the 
bottom.  W'itii  10  feet  of  water  in  this  ditch,  from  30,000  to 
40,000  acres  of  land  can  be  irrigated,  and  each  acre  irrigated 
is  worth  from  $100  to  $500  per  acre.  This  work  was  paid  for 
by  the  Improvement  Fund  Scrip,  issued  in  the  name  of  The 
Credit  Foncier  Company,  and  this  scrip,  known  as  *'  ditch 
scrip"  *  by  the  colonists,  will  be  redeemed  by  the  water  uses 
of  the  said  ditch.  The  only  money  used  by  the  said  colonists 
v/as  to  buy  food,  tools,  etc.,  which  had  to  be  imported  from 
the  United  States.  Any  further  work  of  like  nature,  such,  for 
instance,  as  the  labor  for  building  the  roadbed  of  a  railway 


"^  The  sherilT  ot  l.oi'.ion  annually  pays  into  the  British  extiicc|ucr 
six  horse  shoes  with  the  proi)er  number  of  nails,  as  rent  for  a  piece  of 
ground  in  the  jjarish  of  St.  Clements.  In  1234  this  lot  was  rented 
from  the  Crown  by  a  blacksmith  to  build  a  shop  on,  and  afterwards 
the  property  came  into  the  hands  of  the  city  corporation  at  the  same 
rental.  The  horseshoes  and  nails  have  been  annually  paid  since  the 
date  mentioned.  The  contract  is  fulfilled,  and  hence  the  payment  is 
legal  if  in  full  as  agreed.  ^ 

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o 


6  Problems  of  thf  Hour. 


and  the  laying  of  sleepers  and  raus,  uuiiamg  »3iations,  round- 
houses ana  machine-shops,  and  operating  the  road,  could  be 
done  by  the  colonists  without  money,  for  their  food  can  be 
supplied  from  their  own  farm,  which  is  now  in  a  good  condi- 
tion, and  is  growing  some  kind  of  crops  every  month  in  the 
ye  ar. 

There  has  been  no  other  equal  example  in  modern  times  of 
a  work  having  been  finished  on  The  (luernsey  Market  House 
Plan,  as  the  great  ditch  completed  by  The  Topolobanipo  colo- 
nists ;  and  after  a  little  while  persons  who  are  watching  this  ex- 
periment by  incorporated  labor  will  begin  to  appreciate  the 
marked  ;  -.ccess  that  these  colonists  have  already  attained  in 
sustaining  "^he  fixed  plan  and  the  settled  purposes  with  which 
they  went  to  Sinaloa  to  work  out,  under  so  many  difficulties, 
discouragements  and  expenses. 

The  greatest  and  shortest  laws  that  were  ever  made  are  two : 
Fiist,  that  given  by  jesus  Christ,  "Love  ye  one  another." 
Second,  that  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  "  Put  the  people  to  work." 
Upon  the  observance  of  these  two  little  laws  depends  the  future 
progress  of  our  race. 


Appendix  No.  i. 

38  Wall  Street,  Room  4. 

New  York  City,  Dec.  7,  1896. 
lion.    William    McKinlcy,    President-elect     of     the     United 

States. 
Dear  Sir  : 

Herein  please  find  a  suggestion  for  a  current  money  of  the 
realm  for  the  home  people  at  home.     (Study  No.  6). 

Mrst. — This  will  protect  this  nation  in  its  highest  and  most 
essential  prerogative  to  say  what  shall  be,  and  how,  and  when 
money  shall  be  issued. 

Second.  -This  will  fix  the  prices,  from  year  to  year,  of  the 
nation's  staple  products,  and  will  protect  our  home  producers  at 
home  and  abroad  as  they  have  never  before  been  protected  in 
the  control  of  their  own  products. 


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Problems  of  the  Hour.  ^y 

Third-  -This  will  protect  the  people  from  trusts,  which  other- 
wise will  certainly  ^e  incorporated,  for  their  own  benefit,  to 
comer  and  fix  and  unfix  the  prices  of  our  staple  products,  as 
trusts  have  already  incorporated  and  fixed  and  unfixed  for 
their  own  private  gain,  the  prices  for  oils,  sugar,  coals,  etc. 

Fourth. — This  will  break  up  and  put  an  end  to  the  big  bucket 
shops,  or  to  the  gambling  dives  known  as  **  Produce  Exchanges ; " 
and  will  encourage  the  diversification  and  perfection  of  home 
industries  at  home,  by  giving  protection  in  fixed  prices  for  the 
staple  raw  products  which  are  essential  to  the  manufacturers  of 
finished  articles  of  national  import. 

Fifth. — This  will  be  a  movement  on  the  part  of  the  nation 
which  will  ^all  a  halt  to  those  few  citizens  who  are  now  seeking, 
by  means  of  incorporated  privileges,  to  monopolize  the  currency 
and  the  raw  staple  proc'uctions  of  this  nation ;  and  thereby 
will  call  the  attention  of  the  whole  people  to  where  we,  as  a  nation, 
are  drifting,  that  the  proper  legislation  may  be  taken  to  protect 
ourselves  from  home  and  foreign  companies  which  are  harvest- 
ing where  they  have  not  sown. 

That  Russia  is,  just  at  this  time,  moving  to  fix  the  price  of 
wheat,  in  the  interest  of  her  own  wheat  growers,  gives  a  special 
and  marked  import  to  the  subject  of  this  communication. 

Respectfully, 

Albert  Kimsev  Owen. 


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